At athenahealth,
we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier, a
healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters
most? That's where athenahealth can help. Our AI
native all in one solutions reduce administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most. That means fewer
clicks, more time for patients, and stronger bottom
lines.
Lines. Practicing medicine is complex, but running a
practice can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier@athenahealth.com.
Hello, everyone. This is Scott King with the
Becker's Healthcare Podcast. Thrilled today to be joined
by a very special guest, Cynthia Salisbury, assistant
executive director nursing operations
at Providence. Cynthia, how are you doing today?
I'm great, Scott. How are you? I'm good.
Thanks so much for joining us. You know,
we have a lot to to get to,
a lot of important things, obviously,
happening in health care. But before we do
that, I just wanted to see if you
can please introduce yourself a little bit and
just tell us about your background.
Sure. Yes. Thank you for having me. I'm
happy to be here. So Cynthia Salisbury.
I, I am a nurse. I have, practiced
in a nurse as a nurse practitioner as
well in the past.
Prior to moving into,
health care administration,
I started my role in health care administration
and quality,
and then I served for over a decade
as the regional chief quality officer,
for the Texas, New Mexico region of Providence.
And and then they're focusing
chief nurse executive role, also with Providence.
When I was in that role,
I actually worked with our system level chief
nursing officer, Syl Trocagnier,
to develop and then to implement and pilot
our virtual nursing program at Providence known as
the co caring program.
From there, I, moved to the north division
chief nursing officer where I served in the
Puget Sound in Washington state as well as
Alaska.
And as our co caring virtual nursing program
started to really take off,
I moved to the enterprise level and joined
the SILL as the
system level chief nursing I'm I'm sorry, executive
director
of,
nursing operations serving the system.
And in this role, now I focus on
innovation, new models of care, and application of
technology to nursing care delivery.
Well, thank you for sharing that that background
information. It's incredibly impressive to hear
how many different sectors of a health system
you've worked in. I mean, you've you've gotten
so much great experience in different areas, it
sounds like.
Yes. It's amazing. You know? And looking back,
you never know where your career is gonna
take you. But as I look back on
it, it has really,
prepared me for this role today, which, which
I which I just absolutely love.
Absolutely. I I think that kind of brings
us to our first question. You know, you're
with your experience, you're ready to address a
lot of the challenges in health care that
we're seeing, and there are a lot of
challenges and headwinds right now, obviously.
My question is, what opportunities and headwinds do
you have your eye on right now?
Yeah. You know,
many systems right now, I think, are feeling
some relief from the extreme nursing shortages that
we experienced over the past several years.
And I, I think many of my colleagues
may be getting complacent
thinking that the threat is over,
but this is not the case. So if
we consider
the baby boomer population now and in the
near future
leading to a large increase in our aging
population
along with fewer nursing graduates to meet the
predicted demand for care
and the average age of our current RN,
staff
nursing.
And so then leading to higher expected rates
of retirement
and the need to step away from bedside
care.
So considering all of those things, we really
must continue to prepare for our future so
we do not end up repeating what we
just went through, which was an extreme shortage
of our end serving at the bedside,
threatening the ability for us to effectively meet
the growing care needs of our communities
because this truly remains a very real threat.
So in in in really kind of watching
that and and understanding
that is the true forecast for our future
in health care and in nursing,
I really do have my eye on the
expansion of technology and nursing care delivery to
enhance the experience and efficiency of our nursing
workforce
and really leaning in to this technology
to serve as a resource for creating the
best place to provide and reserve
and receive care
in terms of experience,
outcomes, and operational efficiency
or cost of care.
So I'm very interested
in removing,
the burden from our nurses, and I know
many of my colleagues are are are right
there with me in that. So we're looking
at administrative documentation burden, cognitive burden, alarm fatigue.
And so we really need to lean into
technology to serve as a resource to our
newer nurses as well to support enhancing competence
and confidence.
And we need to allow all disciplines on
the care team to work at their highest
scope through the use of our tech resources
that can create efficiencies in our workflows.
So I definitely have my eye on continuing
to expand our virtual nursing,
program, virtual care in total in the inpatient
space,
as well as leaning into other tech solutions,
including AI.
You know, Cynthia, I thought it was really
interesting you used the term
complacency.
And just a follow-up question to that,
do you think some of your
colleagues or or people you're referring to
may be complacent
because they kinda use COVID as a barometer
for a headwind? You know, saying like, oh,
you know, we got through COVID. We can
get through anything. Do you think that maybe
factors into it?
I think that could factor into it. And,
also, I think that, you know, whenever we
were going through COVID and recovering from COVID,
all of us were feeling that shortage of
our end working at the bedside. We it
we we were,
really having to rely on our agency nurses
to come in and help us to provide
the care that we needed. And now we're
we're starting to see that,
really lessen, and and we are able to,
you know, retention has gone up, has has
improved.
Our recruitment has improved. And so as we
start to see all of these, which are
providing great relief, and that's wonderful,
I think there's a tendency to say, okay.
It's over. Like, we're good now. Right. And,
and and that, I think, can be, a
a a definite risk if if we become
too complacent in that. We need to look
forward to our future and what is in
store for us and know that, you know,
we have to be smart today
so we don't end up in that same
situation in the future.
100%.
And you mentioned recruitment. A lot of times,
obviously, you see,
recruitments,
lead to growth for a system. But how
are you thinking about growth and adding value
to your
organization? Well, you know, one of the most
important things is truly understanding
what
the largest pain points are
and what are the true opportunities
within within within our health system. Right? So
really identifying those
first
and then understanding
precisely
how
the the technology,
the different solutions that are available to us
are going to address
those opportunities, those pain points.
And then finally, what it will mean for
our team, what effort will it take from
our team
to optimize and realize the full vision
for the application
of this solution to care delivery.
So all of those components are necessary
for the development of a smart road map
and strategy.
So after the identification
of that, then we have to prepare our
team
for engagement and embracing that technology,
including AI,
and in doing so effectively.
So this involves change in how we practice
today
to ensure that these resources function optimally and
provide the intended benefits.
So we have to align our teams with
this vision,
gain their confidence, alleviate their fear through being
very
done so that they then are invested in
making the changes that will be necessary in
their practice.
And that has to begin now
so that we, so that we are able
to be successful in adoption
as well as in realization of the true
benefits of the of these solutions.
Yeah. And, you know, a lot of times
you have to a system has to make
investments to see that that change you're referring
to. And I wanted to ask you, what's
one risk or investment worth making this year?
So I'll tell you.
What I see is the biggest risk right
now is being stagnant, like we were talking
about. Yeah. Just being stagnant, doing nothing, or
continuing to follow the status quo and
convincing ourselves that everything will be alright.
We are in a massive time of transformation
in health care, and we have to step
up. We have to get on the bus
or get left in the dust
struggling to catch up. And and I think
that this is going to be a very
difficult struggle
for those who do not act now.
So for us here at Providence, we are
continuing to enhance our utilization of virtual health
in the acute care space,
including in nursing, spreading to additional care areas
and patient populations,
and then also spreading the use of this
technology to other disciplines
to enhance the interdisciplinary
practice of the care team,
creating efficiencies in care and increasing the experience,
the quality, and the cost of care for
our patients, and really looking at the full
continuum of care as well and having it
translate from the acute care space to the
ambulatory space
to foster health, in the community as well.
Another thing is,
looking at the hospital room of the future.
I know many systems are doing this as
well, and that really involves integration
of solutions.
So everything works together cohesively,
creating one effective and efficient model of care
delivery.
So interoperability
is essential and redundancy,
and we must eliminate redundancy
of solutions,
including software and hardware.
We have to be more streamlined.
We can't continue to function as as kind
of like hoarders in how we adopt solutions,
and then and then we'll end up looking
like we should be on some kinda, you
know, hardware technology
hoarder solute
show, right,
with a mess of solutions and equipment everywhere,
but nothing actually being used because it's not
optimized to its full potential.
So to really do this right, it takes
diligence, it takes discernment,
and strong interdisciplinary
and interdepartmental
collaboration
to determine the best solutions and then to
standardize
and optimize for your system.
So we have to invest the time
and the effort in preparing our teams for
this success.
And, you know, the financial investment is a
hard one to talk about particularly in these
times, but we can't forget about that other
really important investment, and that is time and
effort.
We have to get on board now. The
time is now to start to prepare our
teams.
So we have to identify the highest priority
opportunities,
the available and evolving solutions that can truly
address these challenges,
determine our strategy. Are we gonna be an
early adopter versus waiting and learning from others?
And regardless of this decision,
understanding the technology and what needs to change
in order for us to be successful. So
is that how we document, how we communicate?
Do we need to focus on delegation, on
trust, diligence, attention to detail?
So in summary,
we must embrace technology,
we must standardize and integrate our solutions and
platforms,
and we must prepare our teams for success,
and that has to start now.
I think that's very well said. Obviously, I
think one of the ways a system can
get away from being stagnant or remaining stagnant
is embracing
emerging tech and and just, you know, figuring
out which emerging techs can can help a
system thrive and and be efficient and saving
time and and and effort, as you were
saying, Cynthia.
The last thing I wanna ask you, where
do you see the best opportunities for growth
in the future?
You know, I I I think I have
to I'm I'm gonna have to to side
with AI on this one. It it is
the continued evolution of AI as a resource
for all clinicians.
I think AI has has a true,
potential to remove burden and allow higher levels
of care,
actually elevating the practice
of all of our disciplines, including RNs,
and supporting a higher level of quality safer
care,
better outcomes, reduce cost of care, all of
these things.
We are starting to lean into generative AI
for sure.
Looking at predictive AI, we have some of
that happening as well that that really has
the potential for safer outcomes.
And I have my eye on the development
of the more autonomous AIs and how these
are being developed and tested with a sharp
eye on safety and guard rails and guard
rails, but definitely
definitely showing curiosity about the possibilities around that.
I think, you know, some of the things
that we have to watch for with those
more autonomous models are are really strict guardrail
parameters,
keeping clinicians closely in the loop and ultimately
in the driver's seat always with safety checks.
And,
this, you know, this is a really
exciting
time,
and we must approach this with a heightened
diligence
and the highest of intention
in order to realize the true opportunity and
benefits
of the technology solutions that are that are
arising within health care.
Cynthia, thank you so much for joining us
on podcast. It was a wonderful conversation. I
look forward to working with you again soon.
Thank you so much. Thank you for having
me.
At athenahealth,
we know your ambulatory practice wants healthier,
a healthier business, healthier care teams, and healthier
patients.
But the complexities of modern health care tech
make it hard for you and your care
teams to focus on what matters most?
That's where athenahealth can help.
Our AI native all in one solutions reduce
administrative burdens,
streamline billing and payments, and deliver critical insights
when clinicians need it most.
That means fewer clicks, more time for patients,
and stronger bottom lines.
Practicing medicine is complex, but running a practice
can be that much simpler with athenahealth.
See how simpler is healthier at athenahealth.com.